I have a strange behavior since I updated spark to 2.8.1
When someone write to my user and I dont have a conversation already opened with him, I see the spark icon flashing, the tab of that user is flashing too, but the message he sent me wont appear in the chat box. I will only see the new message he will send after that. Here is an example:
User1: Hello
User1: How are you
Me I only see, How are you. I do not get the first message. But the windows do blink to show me I got something.
If I already have a discution opened with that user, I will receive everything.
There was a lengthy discussion about this issue recently. A few users experienced this. I think it can happen if you upgrade from older Spark version and some old files are left over. It seems that the solution that worked was to do a clean reinstall and then also start with a fresh profile.
You can wipe your Spark profile and start with a fresh one. Spark profile is here